🔊 When Reggie Miller appeared on the All The Smoke podcast not long ago, the man who spent 18 seasons terrorizing NBA defenses and draining clutch shots in front of packed arenas could barely get a word out. Not because he lacked something to say, but because the subject moved him too deeply. He was talking about his sister, Cheryl Miller, and the weight of what she meant to him, what she meant to the game of basketball, and what the game ultimately denied her came crashing down all at once. Cheryl Miller is a name that casual sports fans may know only as a footnote to her famous brother. That framing is precisely backwards. Reggie himself has always known it, and he has never been shy about saying so. The story of Cheryl Miller is one of breathtaking talent, record-breaking dominance, and a career cut brutally short before the world had finished seeing what she was capable of. Read More: What Is Rick Fox’s Ethnicity? Inside His African-Bahamian, Italian & Scottish Roots A family built on competition The Miller household in Riverside, California, was not a quiet one. Saul Miller Sr. served in the military and played music on the side, and the five children he and his wife raised carried athletic ability in their blood. Darrell Miller made it to Major League Baseball. Tammy played volleyball at Cal State Fullerton. Reggie became one of the most celebrated shooters in NBA history. And then there was Cheryl. Even in a family overflowing with athletic talent, Cheryl was the one who set the standard that everyone else measured themselves against. View this post on Instagram A post shared by IntersportHoops (@intersporthoops) Reggie has spoken often about the backyard games of one-on-one he played with Cheryl growing up. She was older, bigger, and significantly better, and she blocked his shots at will. Far from being discouraged, Reggie adjusted. He developed the high-arching, almost impossible-to-contest shooting form that would become his signature in the NBA, all because his older sister kept swatting his attempts into the yard. He had to find a way to get the ball over her. By Reggie’s own account, the two of them stopped playing one-on-one only when he finally grew tall enough and strong enough to block her shots in return. That moment marked the end of an era in their driveway and, in a way, the beginning of his professional journey. But Cheryl’s journey had already been underway for years, and it was something to behold. 105 points and a legacy carved in stone At Riverside Polytechnic High School, Cheryl Miller did not just win games. She dismantled opponents in a way that still sounds like exaggeration when you read it. Her teams went 132- 4 across her four years there. More famously, in her senior season, she scored 105 points in a single game against Norte Vista High School. Scoring 105 points in a single high school game is not a statistical outlier. It is a statement about the gap between one player and everyone else on the court. The number does not get smaller the more you sit with it. One hundred and five points. In a forty-minute game that requires a scoring rate that borders on the surreal. It was the kind of performance that announces a generational player, and Cheryl was exactly that. She took that dominance to the University of Southern California, where she became one of the most decorated players in the history of college basketball. The Naismith College Player of the Year award went to her three times. She was named an All-American four times. Her teams at USC reflected her ability to raise the level of everyone around her. In 1984, she was a central figure on the United States Olympic women’s basketball team that won the gold medal in Los Angeles. It was one of the defining moments of her career, a chance to represent her country at the highest level of international competition and deliver. She did exactly that. The knee that changed everything Cheryl graduated from USC in 1986, and any reasonable projection of her career pointed toward continued greatness. The WNBA did not yet exist, so the professional path for women basketball players in the United States was limited, but her talent was undeniable, and her reputation was without equal in the women’s game. In 1987, a torn ligament in her right knee ended not just a season but ultimately a playing career that had barely scratched the surface of its potential. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Indiana Fever (@indianafever) The surgery was extensive and the rehabilitation long. Then, before she could fully return to form, she injured the same knee again the following year. The repeated trauma proved too much, and Cheryl Miller retired from playing basketball not long after. She was in her mid-twenties. The game had barely seen what she could do over a full professional career. She went on to coach and later became a television analyst, working for Turner Sports as a broadcaster. She was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, the recognition that her playing career deserved. But the what-if question has always lingered. Reggie Miller, who spent his entire NBA career listening to comparisons and building his own Hall of Fame resume, has never had any ambiguity about who the best basketball player in his family was. His voice breaks when he talks about it. He was there for all of it, from the driveway games where she outplayed him to the arenas where she outplayed everyone else. He watched it happen, and he knows what it meant. “Not many people can say they grew up in a household with the greatest of anything,” Reggie said on the podcast. When a player of his stature says that about his older sister, it is worth taking seriously. Cheryl Miller was something the sport had never quite seen before, and she remains one of the most compelling figures in basketball history precisely because her story left so much unfinished. You May Also Read: Anthony Edwards Injury Report: Will He Play in the 2026 NBA Playoffs? Latest Update FAQs When did Reggie Miller leave TNT, and why did he move to NBC? Miller moved to NBC in 2025 after TNT lost its live NBA game broadcasting rights. He had been with TNT since retiring from professional basketball in 2005. Who does Reggie Miller work alongside at NBC during NBA broadcasts? Reggie Miller serves as the lead color commentator and is paired with veteran sportscaster Mike Tirico for NBC’s NBA coverage. Did Reggie Miller ever consider coming out of retirement to play again? Yes. In August 2007, the Boston Celtics, who had just assembled a roster featuring Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce, reached out to Miller about joining as a reserve player. His former coach, Rick Carlisle, also confirmed they discussed the idea seriously. Why did Reggie Miller turn down the Boston Celtics in 2007? On August 24, 2007, his 42nd birthday, Miller announced he would not be making a comeback. He stated that while he believed he was physically capable, the mental commitment was not there. He said a player either had to be all in or all out, and he had decided he was all out. When was Reggie Miller’s number officially retired by the Indiana Pacers? Reggie Miller’s number 31 was officially retired in a ceremony at halftime on March 30, 2006, at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Post navigation Trey Gibson Ethnicity Parents: Full Family Background Explained Dennis Schröder’s career earnings show how he bounced back from his biggest financial mistake
